1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an arresting and an interlocking unit for displaceable and pivotable doors and/or walls, which are attached so as to be movable via rollers to/in a roller rail. Furthermore, the invention relates to a partition wall system, including a roller rail, two or more displaceable and pivotable doors and/or walls, which are guided to be movable via rollers at and/or in the roller rail, for each door or wall at least one movable carriage profile to which one or more rollers are attached, as well as an adjusting and interlocking unit for at least one of the doors or walls.
2. Description of the Related Art
A system composed of sliding walls, respectively sliding doors, includes fixedly mounted roller rails with corresponding rail branches which allow for displacing parts of or the entire unit disposed thereunder, in other words in particular one or more sliding leaves of the partition wall system, or to park them in a side position. This will always occur in the event a space, for example, needs to be separated or else if a space needs to be subdivided into several smaller spaces. Another application area of a partition wall system made from sliding walls, respectively sliding doors, is nowadays found more and more in the utilization of door wall elements in the area of restaurants and business premises. In this case, depending on the weather conditions, the entire door wall frontage can be removed or else only parts of the door frontage can be displaced or pivoted to the side.
Partition wall systems, respectively systems composed of sliding walls or sliding doors of this species, can be found in the documents DE 35 22 824 A1 as well as DE 31 48 464 A1. In order to be able to modify this type of installation fast and without major expenditure of forces, the partition wall elements, respectively the door wall elements, are equipped with so-called arresting devices, which are located at the upper end of an element and can be released or arrested by protracting, respectively retracting an interlocking device. However, this action becomes difficult, if, in case of high partition wall systems of more than 2 meters measured from above the ground, not every person will still be able to reach the interlocking device without the help of ladders or the like.
In currently known systems with displaceable and/or pivotable doors and/or walls, in particular in the area of horizontal sliding walls, respectively sliding doors, one element, respectively one swing/sliding leaf is currently secured by an arresting and interlocking unit, which includes two screws, wherein the screws are screwed by their thread into a corresponding counter-piece by a rotating movement. An arresting and interlocking unit of this species for displaceable and/or pivotable doors and/or walls is known for example from the document EP 0 562 073 B1. The arresting and interlocking unit consists of an upper part, a central part and a lower part, which are placed one below the other. The three parts are affixed to the outside of the door installation by fastening screws. In this case, respectively one screw for the arresting procedure and for the interlocking procedure is located in the unit. The screws are operated from the ground by an articulated handle, which, at its upper end, has a ball head hexagon socket screw wrench. Both the arresting screw and the interlocking screw can be screwed in or out by the ball head hexagon socket screw wrench.
If, for example a door, respectively a door wall element needs to be closed, the arresting screw, which is located in the central part of the unit, is screwed into the upper part of the unit by a rotating movement, which part is attached to the roller rail of the door wall system. Thereby, two parts of the unit, namely the upper and the lower parts, are connected to each other, and the door leaf cannot be laterally moved any more. In order to be able to secure the swung-out condition of the door leaf, so to say essentially vertically to the lateral displacement, the second interlocking screw, which is located in the lower part of the unit, can be screwed into the central part of the unit. The type of screw connection allows for arresting the entire door, respectively a door element. Upper, central and lower parts form one single unit.
Now, in case a swing/sliding leaf needs to be brought into a parking position, the arresting connection needs to be released correspondingly and the swing/sliding leaf can be displaced within the roller rail. In case only swinging of the swing/sliding leaf is desired, the connection of the arresting screw to the roller rail needs to be maintained. Furthermore, the arresting screw needs to be unscrewed from the central part, and the swing/sliding leaf, respectively the entire swing/sliding leaf frontage is not arrested in its pivoting range. Articulated handles are utilized for operating the screws. The potential of hazard when adjusting the arresting and interlocking devices is reduced to almost zero, in particular because no additional devices need to be used.
If, however, one of the screws is not properly screwed in, the thread of the corresponding screw is adversely affected. The circumstance may result in a complete deformation of the thread and thereby of the screw such that the corresponding screw cannot be screwed any more into the upper part or the central part. In particular on account of the order of operation, the ease of operation is not optimal. As a consequence, it is no longer possible to prevent a door or a wall from pivoting and/or from being displaced, such that the entire partition wall system becomes instable.